About ten days ago, Sports Illustrated's Michael Farber dedicated some space in his On The Fly column to talk about the Edmonton Oilers' domination in the shoot-out this season.
Combined with Christmas Day highlights of Jonathan Toews' dominant shootout performance in the 2006 World Junior Championship, it's clear that modern hockey franchises - NHL and otherwise - have to face the reality of the shoot-out.
Although the Oilers are currently a glum 16-18 this year, and are deep in the cellar of the Western conference, they are an impressive 10-1 when the game goes to a shoot-out. Consider how pathetic their record would be if they hadn't won those games in the 1-on-1!
Today, Canada beat Slovakia for their twentieth consecutive victory in the World Junior Championships. A record that would've been snapped four games ago if Jonathan Toews hadn't been so dominant with three goals to beat Team USA in the 2006 semi-finals.
Farber discussed the idea of teams employing shoot-out specialists. I agree - - that is an idea whose time has come. Every NHL team should now dedicate a large section of practice to the shoot-out. It'd be good for both the goaltenders and the shooters to practice.
With more then half of the Oilers' wins coming from their skill in the shoot-out, it's clear that the potential is there for the skills competition at the end of a game to make or break a team's season. General managers, coaches, and players should take notice and begin to adapt to an aspect of the game that is quickly growing.
The third and fourth-liners of the NHL should start dedicating chunks of their off-season to practicing their dekes and breakaway shots, while goalies across North America should start practicing as well - - the game is changing, and for the better.
1 comment:
The only problem is that I think you need specialists (plural) and those you sort of have to find. What I want to know is how much do coaches focus on the shoot-out in practices: finding the best potential match-ups against particular goalies, scouting opposition goalies specifically for the shoot-out- if Brodeur is weakest on his high glove side, who shoots at that spot the better on your roster.
See, I think the point becomes working through a shoot-out system within your regular coaching scheme rather than just throwing your three best scorers out there and hope for the best...employ some thinking, scouting etc.
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